This paper investigates the effects of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows controlling for other relevant determinants using a panel data approach for 45 countries over 1997-2004. While economic theory suggests that corruption should discourage FDI, many notably corrupt countries receive substantial FDI - an anomaly worthy of investigation. In common with other empirical work, we find no statistically significant impact of corruption on FDI. This suggests that policies designed to attract additional foreign FDI should focus on corporate income taxes and other determinants of investment rather than on the intractable problem of reducing the level of corruption.

This study investigates long run and short run relationships between the corporate income tax rate and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the US. The tax rate is found to exert a significant negative effect on total FDI and transfer fund inflows in the long run. A 1% decrease in the tax rate would increase total FDI by 2.4% and transfer funds by 4.2%. Collectively, results suggest that the US can use tax policies to attract FDI from abroad. Concern over the possibility of tax competition among countries to attract foreign capital is warranted.